1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus that performs processing such as etching, film-forming, or the like on a processing substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device or the like, and a transfer positioning method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, substrate processing apparatuses are known, which perform processing such as etching, film-forming, or the like on a processing substrate that is a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device, or the like. Regarding such substrate processing apparatuses, there is known one having a structure in which modules such as a plurality of vacuum process chambers, a vacuum transfer chamber provided with a transfer mechanism therein, a transfer chamber for transferring a processing substrate in the atmosphere, a mounting part on which a cassette or a FOUP capable of accommodating a plurality of processing substrates is mounted, a positioning mechanism (orienter) which performs positioning of a processing substrate by an orientation flat or a notch, and so on are connected so as to perform efficient processing on a processing substrate.
Since respective parts are modularized in the substrate processing apparatus as described above, positions, heights and so on of respective modules include some errors from design values when these modules are assembled. Accordingly, in the transfer mechanism which transfers a processing substrate between these modules, it is required to perform teaching for storing heights and positions of respective modules which become transfer positions after the apparatus is assembled. As a method of performing such teaching, there is known a method which manually performs, first, rough teaching with rough accuracy of position (accuracy of position of approximately ±2 mm for example) using a dummy substrate, and thereafter performs teaching with high accuracy (accuracy of position of approximately ±0.2 mm for example) using an orienter (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2004-174669 for example).
In the above-described conventional technique, teaching with high accuracy can be carried out by means of the orienter without depending on visual observation or the like. However, also in this method, when performing the rough teaching or the like for example, there are steps involving visual observation and manual operation by an operator, and thus there is a problem requiring much time and labor in these steps. Also, since the teaching using the orienter is for a horizontal direction, there is a problem such that accuracy of height (Z axis) position cannot be obtained adequately.